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Research Summaries

Using the drop-down menu below, read about highlighted scientific news for patients from ASCO's Annual Meetings, Symposia, and medical journals for the past three years. You can select a specific year, meeting or publication, and/or a specific topic, such as a type of cancer. Selecting "All" will take you to a complete list of articles that appear under all categories.

This includes ASCO’s Journal of Clinical Oncology and its scientific meetings, including the ASCO Annual Meeting, a five-day meeting held each May/June. To read the Annual Meeting summaries compiled into a yearly newsletter, you can also review Research Round Up: News for Patients from the ASCO Annual Meeting. Don’t forget to check out audio podcasts and videos about this news, as well. And a list of upcoming Symposia can be found here. And, in addition to the highlighted studies below, thousands of scientific abstracts are released each year at different ASCO meetings. To search the entire collection of meeting abstracts, visit ASCO's website.

In a large, ongoing study, researchers found that a combination of ibrutinib (Imbruvica) and standard treatment slows the growth of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and lowers patients’ risk of dying from the disease.

Results from a phase I clinical trial show that pembrolizumab (Keytruda) is able to shrink head and neck cancer that has spread to other parts of the body or come back after treatment. These findings suggest that immunotherapy may fill a large unmet need for better treatments for recurrent and advanced head and neck cancer.

In an early-stage study, nivolumab (Opdivo) has shown encouraging results as a treatment for advanced liver cancer. Liver cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide, accounting for more than 600,000 deaths each year. People diagnosed with advanced liver cancer especially need new treatment options, as there is currently only one drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

As part of an ongoing study, researchers found that a new immune-based treatment controlled the growth of multiple myeloma for longer than standard treatment. This new treatment, elotuzumab, works in two different ways to treat myeloma. It is able to directly target multiple myeloma cells and boost a part of the immune system that helps control the growth of cancer cells.

A large, ongoing study showed that men with advanced prostate cancer who received docetaxel (Docefrez, Taxotere) in addition to standard prostate cancer treatment lived longer than those who received only standard hormone therapy. The study also showed that including zoledronic acid (Zometa) along with docetaxel and standard hormone therapy did not offer additional benefits.

Cancer.Net provides timely, comprehensive, oncologist-approved information from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), with support from the Conquer Cancer Foundation. Cancer.Net brings the expertise and resources of ASCO to people living with cancer and those who care for and about them to help patients and families make informed health care decisions.